Hilton Food Group's chief executive, Robert Watson, has upped his stake in the meatpacker with the purchase of £320,000 worth of shares. He bought 200,000 at 161p each and now has nearly 3.2m, about 4.5% of the company.

He was joined by non-executive director Sir David Naish, who took 10,000 shares, and his wife Victoria, who took 5,000. They paid 162p a time and now have 25,000 shares and 10,000 shares respectively.

Hilton, based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, which supplies Tesco, as well as other supermarkets in mainland Europe, last month upped its dividend as it reported an 11.6% rise in full-year pre-tax profit. The group is recommending a final dividend of 5.74p per share. Together with the interim dividend of 2.4p paid in December, this makes a total dividend for the year of 8.14p, a 10% increase.

Pre-tax profit rose to £17.3m in the year ended December 31, compared with £15.5m last time as turnover rose by more than 26% to £729.5m.

Trading in the early part of 2009 has been in line with expectations.

PETER GIBBS, a non-executive director at Evolution Group, has taken a stake in the FTSE 250-listed investment bank soon after it posted its 2008 results.

He bought 100,000 shares at 102.7p each, his first Evolution purchase.

The firm said last week that it was well positioned for the future despite falling into losses after revenues slumped.

The firm posted a pre-tax loss of £12.7m in 2008 compared with a profit of £3.2m the previous year, as revenues slipped to £65.2m from £87.5m.

Market conditions were the most demanding for generations, the firm said.

However, Evolution said it had seen “very encouraging” trading over the first quarter.

“We believe the group is capable of riding out the continuing difficult conditions and is well positioned for the future,” it said.

It lifted its final dividend by 2% to 1.27p giving a full-year dividend of 2.02p, up 5% from the previous year.

Gibbs, who began his career at the wealth management and private-banking group Brown Shipley, is a former chief investment officer and head of region for Merrill Lynch’s investment management activities outside the US. He retired from Merrill Lynch in November 2005.

Directors have in-depth knowledge of their businesses so it can pay to track their moves. Every week Digitallook.com reveals those bosses who have bought or sold big stakes

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